Big3Bio: $3M California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine

Coverage of The California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine (aka the “Google maps for health”):

Silicon Valley Business Journal: “By weaving together a hodgepodge of patient and clinical data, other important factors and scientific know-how, California officials hope to create a sort of “Google Maps for health” that will help deliver the right therapies to the right people at the right time. The statewide public-private program, called the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine and led by the University of California, will be launched Tuesday by Gov. Jerry Brown with an initial $3 million commitment from the state.” Full article

UCSF: “Gov. Jerry Brown is launching a statewide initiative with the University of California, to advance the field of precision medicine. The effort will involve collaborating with other academic and industry partners and starting to build the infrastructure and assemble the resources necessary to further develop the field. The goal is to integrate clinical data with genomic, environmental, socioeconomic, mobile and other data from patients so scientists can understand diseases better and develop more precise therapies. The California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine will be a first step toward enabling the state’s scientists to study any disease and even the health care system itself, using data from across the UC health care system and other academic medical centers and health care providers.” Full article

SFGate: “Already, scientists have used precision medicine to determine why some cancer drugs work only on certain patients, depending on their individual DNA or the genetic makeup of their tumor. Future research may explain why some people are more prone to high blood pressure or respond differently to drugs to reduce cholesterol. It may offer clues into why diseases like diabetes are more common in some ethnic groups than others. The California initiative will begin at the five UC medical centers but expand quickly to include public and private research institutions all over the state, plus biotech and pharmaceutical companies, from large corporations to small startups, said Dr. Atul Butte, a “big data” computational expert who was recruited from Stanford to UCSF this year, in part to lead the state initiative. “I can’t wait for us to put these statewide efforts together,” Butte said. “There is a huge amount of research and unmet need here. Obviously, $3 million is a modest amount of money, but I’m hoping it leads to a lot more investment.” Full article

CHI press release: “Sara Radcliffe, president & CEO of the California Healthcare Institute (CHI), issued the following statement today regarding the unveiling of Gov. Jerry Brown’s California precision medicine collaboration initiative: “CHI commends Governor Brown for his leadership on this bold new initiative that will help unleash the power of public-private partnerships to further develop the field of precision medicine in California. This far reaching collaboration between the University of California and other stakeholder partners throughout the state will focus on collecting and utilizing data in clinical, genomic, socioeconomic, mobile, environmental and other areas, to help drive the development of precision medicine-based tools, treatments and technologies.” Full release

Nature: “Keith Yamamoto, vice-chancellor for research at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), says that the state has been working towards its precision-medicine programme for several years. “The broad demographics of the state, coupled with the enormous resources of intellectual capital and the entrepreneurial spirit that is embodied in the companies that are resident here, makes California a good place to do this,” he says. The state plans to spend a total of $2.4 million this year on two demonstration projects.” Full article
View the piece at Big3Bio San Diego.

– See more at: http://www.chi.org/news/big3bio-3m-california-initiative-to-advance-precision-medicine/#sthash.hsGNZwC9.dpuf